I wish my newsletter could be a zillion pages long there's so much Good to share. It's still June 2013 and I just read about a woman named Sampat Devi Pal who has started a gang in India called the Pink Vigilantes who shame abusive husbands and corrupt politicians. Her gang started out with five friends and in just five years now numbers more than 20,000. They're so effective they're gaining political clout and things are changing for the better for the women. She says, "People have tried to assassinate me, arrest me, abuse me, shut me up but I won't be quiet until things improve for the women here." In October 2012, 21 of the Pink Gang members won elections in the equivalent of our municipality elections overseeing construction and repair of roads, improvements in sanitation and drinking water, and implementing development schemes for agriculture. Usha Patel, another Pink Gang member, said, "Finally, the poor are getting their rights." I'm so thrilled to see the success of committed women!!! How fabulously utterly brave!!!
Another one of my favorite, favorite heretic~heroes, Friedrich Nietzsche, said, "The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened, but no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself." I couldn't agree more. I'm flabbergasted yet again by my realization that if we don't work for the common Good of all we end up in such dire despair and isolation. That's why people can have such mountains of money or material goods and yet they've lost their Soul, their connectedness with their own Divinity and the Divinity all around them. The news is full of the lies in the NSA, the government on all levels, and the "power over" mentality that does such horrendous damage to everyone and everything. That's why we can destroy the environment and not even realize that we don't breathe methane very well and we're killing ourselves by our willful action or inaction, depending on which side of the podium we're standing on in any given moment. The wakeup calls of every kind are increasingly dramatic. With our hacking abilities we have Edward Snowden and others doing the wrong thing for the right reason to bring to our attention the lies, the secrecy, the snooping our government is illegally doing. It's not right to do something illegal and yet things sure do need to change. Our government needs to act with Integrity and they aren't doing it. Someone needs to speak up and call them out and he did it. I agree with Valerie Plame. He's not a hero and he's not a traitor, and I totally agree with Valerie Plame, how ludicrous it is for Dick Cheney, after all he did to illegally reveal Valerie Plame's CIA identity and put her life at risk, to call Edward Snowden a traitor. The pot has an amazing propensity for calling the kettle black!!! We need a lot more Vision there!!!!! Fear doesn't get it done!!!
As I'm writing all this it occurs to me that Faith and Confidence are the highest forms of Love. I've shared before that Faith and Confidence are my two favorite qualities and that the Latin root word for Confidence is con fide, meaning with Faith. With Faith in who we are as Spirit Incarnate, we live from Integrity. We recognize our inextricable Oneness with all of Life and we do no harm to anyone or anything!!! I certainly experienced a much needed expression of Faith and Confidence today. I asked a friend for prayer help. We are prayer chaplains in our spiritual community. Her Love and Faith and Confidence in me and for me were just off the map beautiful. I don't even remember the words but I sure got the feeling and the Clarity of what is needed for me to do next. That is the value of community. That is the value of Trust in myself and others. I knew who to go to and I was blessed exponentially and I am so grateful. I experienced in some very humorous ways how much tension I'm carrying in and on my shoulders. I experienced vividly how much I need a massage and how much more flexible I need to be physically, emotionally and spiritually. It was quite the sweet and awesome wake up call for how to help myself. If this is what is happening now I can't wait to get to April 2014 and be experiencing all the Good I will be knowing then!!! My Awareness of Power within keeps growing!!!!
As I sit here in June 2013 just hearing that the Supreme Court has struck down section 4 of the Voting Rights Act I am certainly called to action at the very least to say what a hauntingly profound act of ignorance and uncaring that decision is. Racism is plainly rampant in this country and we've just taken away one of the most effective ways to ensure that minorities' rights are protected. It is a huge call to action as the 2014 elections and the 2016 election hangs in the future. WOW! I'm flabbergasted by the ignorance and not surprised by who voted to gut the protections!!! I'm thrilled to see that action is already being taken on many fronts to restore these much needed protections to ensure that the needed changes continue to take place. "Power over" is a failed system!!!!!!!!!!!
On two other fronts of social action and conscience I continue to follow the "ag gag" rulings, the process of the big agriculture conglomerates trying to make sure the public knows nothing of the horrendous filth and cruelty going on in these massive farms and how our food is being adversely affected. The "ag gag" process is trying to criminalize any whistleblower who takes pictures documenting the filth and cruelty. Has it ever been clearer to eat organic only or buy from people you know who aren't using pesticides and growing food and raising animals in filthy conditions? I'm also reminded of some of the unconscionable shenanigans in the banking industry during and preceding the collapse of the economy as quoted in Mother Jones magazine, "61% of those notorious subprime mortgage borrowers were actually eligible for regular lower-rate loans. Dishonest lenders steered them away." I find that so astonishing and sad! There's more than enough for all!!
I must say again this is why I love the Goddess traditions so much and why they are so reviled by the patriarchy!!! The last thing in the world the fear-based, "power over" traditions want you to know is that you have a mind of your own, that you are connected with your Power within, because then their power over you is gone!!! Faith, Confidence, Courage and Joy are game changing qualities. They are Expressions of our true spiritual heritage and Identity: our I AM Identity. I AM here to honor that heritage!!! We are caretakers! Not dominators! We must learn to value our true Identity!!! We are Spirit Incarnate. We do not have to live in or from fear!!! There's so much Good happening in the world. There's so much Good within us. We are the Power we need to heal ourselves!!! The Choice is ours and ours alone!!! Mother Nature's Beauty is within us and all around us. Take a new look within and around you and create your new and vibrant world. We are one world… One community. We can bring Peace and Change by loving and honoring ourselves and each other. It all starts within. Could it be any clearer? J Game on!!! I'm so excited and grateful to be alive today to my inherent Worthiness!
